What I've Learned-Reflections on being 75.

Today's my birthday. I'm 75 years old.  As is my custom,  here are a few thoughts on what I've learned to be important in this short life.

Exactly 30 years ago I read an amazing book called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten written by Robert Fulghum.  I was 45 at the time  and thought to myself I couldn't possibly improve on what he had to say so I'm reproducing the main points here-the key to a happy life summed up perfectly:

1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Stryrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.”
― Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten